September 18, 2009

シルバーウィーク Silver Week

So in 2009, Sep 21st (Mon) is the day, also 23rd (Wed) is another holiday which is “Autumn Equinox day”.

If there is a weekday between two holidays, the day also becomes holiday called “Kokumin no kyukujitu”.Therefore, from Sep. 20th to 23rd becomes four consecutive national holidays, becomes a five-days-holiday if 19th (Sat) is included. This long holidays are recently called “Silver week” however, this is not a permanent one because “Respect for Senior Citizen Day” is the third Monday by current law.After 2009, we do not have such long holidays until 2015.The origin of the word “Silver week” is that “silver against gold (there is longer successive holidays in April-May which is called “Golden Week”) and because one of the days is “Respect of Senior Citizen Day”, it is said that the word silver comes from “silver seat = priority seats“Wikipedia

- words & phrases -ハッピーマンデー制度(せいど)： Happy Monday systemThere are some national holidays are moved to Monday in order to create a three-day-holiday weekend.敬老(けいろう)の日(ひ)： Respect of Senior Citizen Day９月(がつ)第(だい)３月曜日(月曜日)： third Monday of September秋分(しゅうぶん)の日(ひ)： Autumn Equinox Day前々日(ぜんぜんじつ)： two days before祝日(しゅくじつ)： national holiday国民(こくみん)の休日(きゅうじつ)： A weekday becomes a national holiday if it is sandwiched between two national holidays to create longer holidays.結果(けっか)： result四連休(よんれんきゅう)、五(ご)連休： 5/6 days successive holidays含(ふく)める： includes新(あら)たに： newly呼(よ)ばれる： called大型(おおがた)連休(れんきゅう)： long holidays現行法(げんこうほう)： current law恒久的(こうきゅうてき)： permanent出現(しゅつげん)しない： appears, not to have語源(ごげん)： origin of a word対(たい)して： against金(きん)、銀(ぎん)： gold , silverシルバーシート： reserved seats for special assistance passengers優先席(ゆうせんせき)： ditto